Alton to Ascot – Hastings DEMU cab ride – 30 September 2017 – audio from back cab

Hastings Diesels Ltd’s Alpine Sunset railtour, Part 6:
Cab view from Alton to Ascot via Aldershot, Ash Vale and Frimley. This video has *back-cab soundtrack*. Filmed from our preserved Hastings DEMU on Saturday 30 September 2017, during the return leg of our Alpine Sunset railtour.
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In this video we have a non-stop run along the 25 miles and 14 chains from Alton to Ascot. Initially we are following the Alton extension from Farnham, then the Guildford to Farnham line (1849) until the site of Farnham Junction where we curve left joining the 1870 Brookwood to Farnham Junction line. So far we have been retracing our outward route, but at Aldershot North Junction instead of turning right for Guildford, we head straight on to Ash Vale and then turn left up the 1878 line via Camberley (which is single-track for the first 2 miles) to reach Ascot; the latter line has some surprisingly steep gradients, including long stretches of 1 in 60 which is as steep as the Mid-Hants railway whose "Alpine" nature (!) gave the name of this railtour!
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Following the end of this video, we reversed at Ascot and ran up to Reading, reversed there and proceeded via Wokingham to Guildford; the reason for this was to add interest, and to increase the duration of our return journey to allow sufficient time for our Club Class passengers to be properly fed before reaching Guildford. :-)
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Video footage is from an unattended unmonitored forward-facing cab-camera in motor coach 60118 Tunbridge Wells. Because our driver was being ‘talked over the road’, and it is not possible to publish such material, the soundtrack you hear on this video is instead an accurately synchronised audio recording made in the rear cab.
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This outing began at Hastings and ran via Tonbridge (see part 1), Redhill (see part 2) and Guildford to Alton (see part 3) and onto the preserved Mid-Hants Watercress Line to Alresford (see part 4). Following a shuttle service to and from Alton, it then retraced its steps via Alton (see part 4), continuing via Aldershot and Camberley to Ascot (this part), then to Reading, before returning via Wokingham to Guildford where the outward route was then retraced.
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This is part 6; there are no further parts of this railtour to publish. The run from Ascot to Reading was recorded from the back cab (to save changing the camera and recorder around twice), but by the time we left Reading the light was starting to fade and it then came on to rain; by Wokingham the rain was heavy and the footage through to Guildford is of poor quality for both these reasons.
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0:00 – ALTON station
7:14 – Bentley station
9:54 – Farnham depot
11:07 – Farnham station
12:38 – site of Farnham Junction
15:44 – Aldershot station
17:29 – Aldershot North Junction
19:07 – Ash Vale station
19:33 – Ash Vale Junction
23:09 – Former spur lines from SW main line, and Frimley Junction
24:41 – Frimley station
27:48 – Camberley station
28:39 – Over a mile's climb at 1 in 60 from almost a standstill
31:31 – The summit of the climb and the (equally steep) descent beyond
32:27 – Bagshot Tunnel
34:17 – Bagshot station
37:48 – ASCOT station
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Video, soundtrack and captions © Copyright 2017–2019 Hastings Diesels Limited.
https://www.hastingsdiesels.co.uk/
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Travel on our train! See our Railtours webpage at:
https://www.hastingsdiesels.co.uk/rai...
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Equipment: video by GoPro Hero3+ camera with focus modification, suction-mount and extra batteries; back-cab audio by Tascam DR-44WL courtesy of   / moretojack   ; video production by Da Vinci Resolve (free).
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Here are annotated extracts from the Network Rail Section Appendix:
Outward – https://www.dropbox.com/s/p3mna0coul2...
Return – https://www.dropbox.com/s/ijzt3beej98...
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